Norway Chess Tournament 2016 - GOTD Round 6

Opening: C11: French: Steinitz variation

Player(s): Harikrishna, Giri

IM Voja Milanovic recaps Round 6. Only two decisive games today, but the standings changed a lot. Carlsen still in the lead, with 4 points out of 6 rounds, but now the howling pack of pursing wolves has got a new member: the strong Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna. Carlsen drew with MVL, but it wasn't an easy draw for the World Champion. MVL is showing he can be a headache for everyone at the super-top level. They went for a Berlin in the Ruy Lopez, following the game Giri-Karjakin for a long time. At move 22 Carlsen deviated, coming out with a new move: Nd5 . From then on, MVL tried hard, playing quite well, and even getting some slight chance for an advantage, but Carlsen is a great defender, and after a very interesting fight, they agreed on a draw. Kramnik had some chances against Aronian in the middle-game, but Levon was able to hold the Russian to a draw. The strong Indian GM Harikrishna won his game today, defeating one of the favorites of the tournament, Anish Giri. Hari managed to make his queen side pawn into monsters, that later on in the game paralyzed Giri's troops, to eventually win the game. A Brilliant execution by Pentala, that with this result gets back in the fight for the final victory. Eljanov won with Grandelius, who is not having an easy time in Stavanger. The strong Pavel was able to make the difference finding the brilliant 29. Nf5!, temporarily sacrificing a knight to pry open the enemy king's defense and scattering Grandelius' pawn structure. The game was good for white, but still far to be winning. Unfortunately, in time trouble, Grandelius blundered with 34. ...exd6? allowing the white queen to penetrate close to the king, threatening check and take a rook in the process. tomorrow is a rest day. Play resumes Wednesday the 27th, at 10AM EDT -- 16:00 CEST. ICC will have live commentary with IM John Watson and GM Larry Christiansen.